Economy at healthiest levels in more than decade

The
UK economy is now in its best shape since the 1990s, according to an economic
think-tank.

Ernst
and Young’s Item Club report says the economy will grow by 3.5 per cent this
year and 3 per cent in 2005.

But
it cautioned that Chancellor Gordon Brown was spending too much, and that UK
public debt was becoming a problem.

"With
a global economy firing on all four cylinders and a UK economy in its best
shape since the late 1990s, we can look forward to robust growth in the next
two years," said the Item Club’s chief economic adviser, Peter Spencer.